Means for attaching grilles or the like to automobile radiator cores



Jan. 1%, 1932. g GREEN 1,841,388

MEANS FOR ATTACHING GRILLES OR THE LIKE TO AUTOMOBILE RADIATOR CORES Filed Aug. 4, 1951 Patented Jan. 19, 1932 UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE LEE B. GREEN, OF LAKEWOOD, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE GLOBE MACHINE & STAMPING COMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO MEANS FOR ATTACI-IING GBILLES OR THE LIKE TO AUTOMOBILE RADIATOR CORES Application filed August 4, 1931.

My invention relates to means for supporting grilles, screens or other guards in front of radiators on automobiles.

In some of its general objects, my invention aims to provide simple and inexpensive means which will readily enable even a layman to attach such a grille or other guard direct to the radiator core without requiring any drilling, tapping or other machining o erations; which will adequately cushion the attached guard to prevent rattling; which will permit a given grille or other guard to be attached interchangeably to radiator cores with difierently spaced air passages; and which will permit such a guard to be positioned behind the usual fender bar (or headlight) connecting bar even when that bar is spaced only by a relatively small distance from the front of the core.

In a further object, my invention aims to provide a guard-attaching assembly in which certain parts of this assembly can initially be secured to the radiator core to facilitate the positioning and firm attaching of these parts, and in which the screen or other guard can thereafter be attached by other parts of my supporting assembly to the said initially installed parts. In this aspect, my invention aims to provide an arrangement in which the cushioning means are portions of the initially installed supporting parts, in which these portions project only for relatively short distances forwardly from the radiator core, and in which the attaching of the other parts of my assembly can all be effected easily and quickly from the front.

Moreover, my invention aims to provide a guard-supporting assembly in which the cushioning means also assist in locking the assembled attaching parts against loosening; and in which no perforations or other special formations will be required in the binding or frame of the grille or other guard.

Furthermore, my invention aims to provide a guard-supportingassembly which will be more ornamental than conspicuous, which will readily enable the guard to be detached, when desired; and in which the same guardsupporting assembly can be used interchange Serial No. 555,125.

ably ith grilles (or other guards) of widely varying sizes, contours and designs.

Still further and also more detailed objects of my invention will appear from the following specification and from the accompanying drawings, in which drawings Fig. 1 is a fragmentary vertical section through the lower portion of a radiator grille and through a part of the radiator core to which this grille is attached, showing one of the counterpart pluralities of attaching members, and also showing a portion of a fender bar behind which the grille is disposed.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken through the same attaching means along the line 22 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the cushioning cup which forms the outer part of each coupling member.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the threaded insert within such a cushioning cup.

Fig. 5 is a partly spaced-apart side elevation of one of the groups of attaching menr bers, with which groups the grille is attached to the groups of members previously attached to the radiator core.

Fig. 6 is a somewhat diagrammatic front elevation of a grille supported according to my invention.

In accomplishing the objects of my invention after the manner of the drawings, I first secure to the front of the radiator core a plurality of coupling members, all desirably counterparts. Each such coupling member preferably consists of an interiorly threaded rigid cup housed by a cushioning cup, which cushioning cup has its bottom in engagement with the front of the said core and its forwardly open mouth disposed forwardly of the metal cup.

For that purpose, I initially provide a cup 1, desirably of a polygonal cross-section, which cup is formed of a grade of rubber or other cushioning material adapted to be distorted to only a limited extent by strains upon it. Socketed snugly in the polygonal bore 2 of this cushioning cup is a rigid i11- sert l which preferably has a polygonal exterior snugly fitting the bore of the cushioning cup, and which insert is shorter than the said bore. The insert 4 desirably is of metal and is also cup-shaped, and the bottom of this insert has an axial bore 5 which alines with an axial bore 6 in the bottom of the cushioning cup 7.

Then I slide through these bores 5 and 6 a bolt shank 13 of somewhat greater length than the thickness of the radiator core 8, and anchor the head 13 A of the bolt against rotation with resect to the insert 4 by any suitable means, such as hard solder 9. After the bolt head has thus been anchored to the metal insert, which insert desirably, is firmly gripped by the cushioning cup, this assembly can be freely handled as a unit for sliding the shank of each such bolt through one of the air passages 8 A of the radiator core.

The insert then can readily be drawn rearwardly by a nut 10 which is screwed forwardly on the bolt shank 13 and locked by a locknut 11, a strain-distributing washer 12 being desirably placed between the nut 10 and the rear face of the core. During the tightening of the said nut, portions of the bottom 1 A of the cushioning cup will be indented into the air passages 8 A which the cup bottom overlaps, thereby preventing the cup and its insert from rotating and hence facilitating the attaching of each such initially installed group of parts to the radiator core.

In practice, each such cup and insert is desirably positioned so that it will be approximately alined with a mesh opening of the wire grille fabric 14 which opening is fairly near to the grille binding 15, as shown for example in Fig. 6, so that all of the said cups will appear within the confines of the said binding or frame when viewed from the front. After the aforesaid groups of initially installed attaching members have thus been secured to the radiator core, the grille is slid down behind the fender bar 16 and is attached to the said inserts by the second (detachable) group of attaching members. Each of these second groups desirably consists of a flat washer 17 (of larger diameter than the mesh of the grille) bearing against the front of the grille fabric, a spring washer l8 engaging the front of the said flat washer, and an ornamental cap screw 19 which has its shank extending through a mesh of the grille fabric 14 and threaded into the bore of the insert 4 behind that fabric.

When each of these screws 19 is tightened, the grille fabric portions adjacent to it will indent into the mouth of the adjacent rubber cup 1, as shown in Fig. 1, thereby assisting the locking washer 18 (if one is used) in latching the screw against loosening. The forward extending of the cup beyond the metal insert 4 into which the screw is threaded permits this distorting of the rubber by the grille fabric to take place without having the grille touch the metal insert, thereby causing the metal of the grille to bear entirely against rubber. Since the rear end of each coupling member, which bears against the radiator core, is also of rubber, I entirely eliminate rattling even with a severe jarring of the automobile; and the indenting of both grille fabric portions and core cell ends into the rubber also prevent both vertical and lateral sliding of the grille with respect to the radiator core, so that my simple and easily installed fastening means insure noiselessness and also prevent a scratching or scraping of the grille.

By proportioning the parts so that the shanks of the screws 19 are considerably smaller in diameter than the mesh of the grille, I readily permit the screws to adapt themselves to the locations of the insert bores which aline respectively with the bolt shanks, so that the attaching can speedily be effected. So also, since the cap screws 19, the spring washers 18 and the flat washers 17 all can be handsomely plated, and since these flat washers conceal the rubber cups When viewed from the front, the use of my fastening means produces a handsome appearance.

Moreover, by merely removing the cap screws 19 together with the said washers, the grille can speedily be detached from the initially installed fastening members, thereby permitting ready access to the radiator core from the front when needed. And since this detaching is all effected from the front, I make it easy for the user to substitute another type or design of grille or other guard when desired. \Vhen the fastening members of the second (or later attached) groups (one of which groups is shown in Fig. 5) are detached, it will be obvious that no parts of my fastening arrangement project forward- 1 beyond the rear face of the grille fabric. (lonsequently, the grille can readily be attached or detached even when the fender bar 16 is relatively close to the radiator core, which has not been possible with many of the rifle-arrangements heretofore employetl.

Moreover, since no brackets or other supporting elements need to be fastened to the frame or binding of the grille or other guard, no perforations or other deformations need to be provided in the grille frame; and no drilling or other machining is required either on the radiator core or on the front of the shell which houses this core. So also, since all parts of my fastening means except the threaded insert (or inner cup) and its rubber housing are standard materials, and since both this metal insert and its cupshaped housing can be cheaply manufactured in quantities, I secure the above recited advantages at a quite modest cost.

However, while I have illustrated the attaching means of my invention as including cushioning cups and threaded inserts of polygonal section, I do not wish to be limited to these or other details of the construction and arrangement above disclosed, it being obvious that many changes might be made without departing either from the spirit of my invention or from the accompanying claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. Means for supporting a guard in front of a radiator core, comprising a plurality of coupling members engaging the front of the core, bolts extending through the core and each clamping one of the coupling members to the core; and detachable members each extending through the guard and interlocked with one of the coupling members for clamping the guard against the coupling members.

2. deans for supporting a guard in front of a radiator core, comprising a plurality of coupling members, means securing the coupling members to the core, and clamping members each extending through the guard and threaded into one of the coupling members, the clamping members having heads disposed in front of the guards and serving to clamp the guard against the coupling members.

3. Means for supporting a guard in front of a radiator core, comprising a plurality of coupling members interposed between the guard and the core, bolts extending through the core and each clamping one of the coupling members against the core, and threaded members extending through the guard and each threaded into one of the coupling members.

a. Guard supporting means as per claim 3, in which each coupling member has compressible portions respectively engaging the front face of the core and the rear face of the guard, and rigid means connecting one of the bolts with one of the threaded means.

5. Guard supporting means as per claim 3, in which each coupling member comprises a forwardly open cup of resilient material having a perforated bottom engaging the front face of the core, and a forwardly open cup-shaped rigid insert socketed in the cup; the cup bottom and the bottom of the insert having alined perforations through which the corresponding bolt extends, and the bore of the insert being threaded for receiving one of the threaded members.

6. Means for supporting a guard in front of a radiator core, comprising a plurality of coupling members directly interposed between the core and the guard near the periphery of the guard, fastening members each clamping one of the spacer members to the radiator core, and threaded members each extending rearwardly through the guard into one of the spacer members for detachably clamping the guard to the spacer members.

7 Guard supporting means as per claim 6, in which each coupling member comprises a forwardly open metal cup socketed in a forwardly open resilient cup; the resilient cup having its mouth end extending forwardly beyond the mouth end of the metal cup and engaging the rear face of the guard, and having its bottom engaging the radiator core; each metal cup forming a rigid connection between one of the fastening members and one of the threaded members.

8. Guard supporting means as per claim 6, in which each coupling member comprises a forwardly open metal cup socketed in a forwardly open resilient cup, the bore of each resilient cup and the peripheral wall of each metal cup being of substantially counterpart non-circular sections.

9. Guard supporting means as per claim 6, in which each coupling member comprises a forwardly open metal cup socketed in a for wardly open resilient cup, each fastening member being a bolt extending through the bottoms of both cups.

10. Guard supporting means as per claim 6, in which each coupling member comprises a forwardly open metal cup socketed in a forwardly open resilient cup, each fastening member being a bolt extending through the bottoms of both cups and each metal cup having the forward portion of its bore threaded for receiving one of the threaded members.

11. Means for supporting a guard in front of a radiator core, comprising a plurality of coupling members directly interposed between the core and the guard near the periphery of the guard, fastening members each clamping one of the spacer members to the radiator core, and threaded members each extending rearwardly through the guard into one of the spacer members for detachably clamping the guard to the spacer members; the forward and rearward portions of each coupling member being distortible during the attaching of the guard to the radiator core by the aforesaid means, to conform to parts of the guard and of the core engaged respectively by the said portions.

Signed at Cleveland, Ohio, August 3, 1931.

LEE B. GREEN. 

